Calm before the sports

On an uncharacteristically wet evening in sunny Worthing ( the first time it has rained on my watch since we launched in March!) we warmly welcomed Lydia from GG Brighton after she had been successfully recruited at Bevendean park run last Saturday by Belinda, Gill and Beth. Huge GG cheer coming your way all of you, With some GG chatter and catch up it was also nice to see Sue looking fantastic in her new GG t shirt again ( Last time I mention this. I will get over my new t shirt envy ! ) It was sad that Leanne couldn't make it this evening but we will all send our GG healing vibes your way. It was great to see Michelle again after her recent return from a retreat in India , Wowzer! Looking amazing and lean on it Michelle! Last but by no means least Nick ! Thank you so much for rearrranging your work schedule every Monday for our rather different date night! Bravely and defiantly the group headed out in the damp drizzle for a brisk warm up.

Its a Bugs Life

We were warmly welcomed by our hosts Nadia and Ness at the Bugcycle garden in Beach House Gardens. This is an area which has been dedicated to the local community to encourage families to develop their creative skills. The garden was in need of an autumn tidy up.

We worked tyrelessly

One of our first tasks was to move 3 large tractor tyres into their new position. Great functional fitness training team plus we had loads of fun doing this and couldn't resist rolling Beth in the largest tyre.

We left no leaf unturned

There was certainly a small mountain of leaves to make disappear. Sue , Nick and Michelle armed with large rakes and brushes forged forward with 'rake' effort before bagging and binning them all. Gill and I shared some funny memories whilst she was pruning and tidying the bottle garden outside the bug hotel.

Speed boat no waiting

Belinda, Lydia and Beth did one of the best pruning makeovers I have seen on overgrown shrubs surrounding the feature speedboat that resides in the gardens. This also included a fair few wheelbarrow shuttles to the bins at the other end of the park. All part of the fun fitness challenges that Monday nights present!

No creepy and crawling around with the bugs

After an energetic 30 mins , with the light fading and the rain falling Ness and Nadia were genuinely grateful and impressed with the work we had done. After some dodgy dark photos ( Must sort the settings on my phone ready for Winter) the group waved a cheery goodbye raring for their run.

No spare tyres on us

After a run in the rain and return to base we stretched out and spent some time on reflecting on Beth's epic 50th next week (GG task not Birthday!) This is one not to be missed ! Its a fantastic accomplishment which needs celebration Will there be cakes ... or shall we go to the pub .... or maybe both ? Please do send your ideas into me during the week

I hope to see some of you at park run Worthing this week where I will be volunteering . Huge good luck to Beth at her first half marathon in Oxford and Gill who is racing in West Sussex.

Another big GG smile from me

Julia x

A Bone Shaking Warm Up

So we started with 7 runners at the start and ended up with 9 at the task . It was lovely to welcome Leanne , our new member for her 2nd visit to us but the first time I have had the pleasure of her energy and vitality. It was also really good to see Anne again and always fantastic to see my regular recruits Belinda , Gill, Beth, Sue,Duncan and Nick.

Whilst the the sensible 7 took a gentle leg stretcher along the seafront , Duncan put in a swift sprint rushing from work yet managing to arrive first whilst Beth was playing 'beat the train!'

Raking Bad

We were warmly met by Stephanie and Peter who form part of the friends of Heene Cemetery . The cememetry itself had undergone quite a transformation since our last visit with a huge amount of strimming and clearing done on and surrounding the graves. Our task for the evening was to rake and bag up the debris together with some " fine pruning" ( sorry but I do love this pun ! ) The GG team set about this with their usual enthusiasm for doing good in the community.

A Brush with Death

The 2 'die hards' Nick and Gill set about chopping up the large shrubs that had been pruned and Gill even managed to make a broom looking pile ( She does love her improvised tools! ) Newby Leane paired up with Belinda for some 'grim raking' careful manouevering of the wheelbarrow ! Duncan was on a mission tonight . In true scouting style he found a better way of getting from A to B and loaded the bags before transporting them in the wheelbarroow

Did anyone have a coffin fit whilst working

With all the energy exerted I'm surprised no one did ! Anne , Sue and Beth made such 'rake progress' with clearing the pathways and pruning that it looked like a groundforce makeover project .

Chilled to the bone

There was no chance of this tonight. After 30 minutes of hard work , plenty of photos and lots of thanks from our hosts we waved a cheery goodbye and headed out west to put a few more miles in the legs before combined with a double whammy fitness session and stretches before HEADING TO THE PUB !

We should have been drinking spirits

Our treat for all the weeks and months of GoodGym good deeds and running was our first ( of many) trips to the The Egremont pub where we had a friendly welcome from Dominic , the barman who may even join us on a future task. Chatter galore and puns a plenty we were knocking dead the pints.

With graveful thanks

Many many thanks for all the puns, company and good vibes tonight. What a wonderful start to the week.

Have a great week and see you all next week for our first trip to Bugcycle in Beach House Grounds.

Julia :)